MOSCOW. Feb 13 (Interfax) - The Russian Investigative Committee has charged 26 foreigners in absentia for fighting Russia as mercenaries of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and put them on the wanted list, the committee said on Telegram on Thursday.
"Evidence is being collected to prove the foreigners' involvement in the hostilities as mercenaries of Ukrainian armed units. Criminal charges were brought against another 26 persons from 12 states, including the UK, Colombia, Poland, Sweden and Argentina, over the past three weeks," the committee said.
"These people are wanted," it said.
"Consistent with the principle of inevitability of punishment, investigators are evaluating actions of officials related to the hostilities in Donbas since 2014," the committee said.
Based on such evidence, charges have been brought in absentia against former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin and former Ukrainian State Border Guard Service Chairman Viktor Nazarenko.
"Being members of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, they made decisions regarding hostilities against the Donbas civilian population, causing numerous attacks on populated localities in the Lugansk and Donetsk people's republics, injuries and deaths of over 1,000 persons and destruction of more than 368 civilian infrastructure elements," the committee said. "Measures are being taken to find and arrest them," it said.
The information was provided to Russian Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin at a meeting he chaired in Genichesk, Kherson region.